Project ArchEyeAutomatic:

Automatic aerial documentationof historic monuments in 3-D

ArchEyeAutomatic

Fixed Wing Plane

A fixed wing aircraft is currently in testing. It is planned to use the Pixhawk autopilot to control it. The plane has 2,6 m wingspan and can carry over 2kg payload, so no small toy but really dangerous if out of control. The plane is made of elapor, a material like styrofoam but with denser structure and a smoother surface. The structure is strengthened with pipes made of carbon fibre. Out of the box it has several interesting features but needs some improvements to make it useful for large scale mapping.

Some modifications are planned to allow the camera to rotate around the roll-axis, but since this needs heavy modifications to the aircraft’s body, this will be done after some mapping flights to test the endurance. The camera will then be mounted fixed to nadir.